Is music discovery important in a society where most of the stardom and audience are concentrated in a few top acts? Research tells us it is, and new music discovery products tell us that major online music services know it. Music discovery initiatives from Spotify, Pandora, and SoundCloud are bringing music discovery into an era of personalized delivery. Continue Reading
A new consumer survey called Indonesian Streaming Music Consumption 2016, commissioned by Australian company Tuned Global, shines light into the music-listening habits and preferences of Indonesian consumers. Tuned Global, which helps major brands connect with consumers via mobile music solutions, gave an early release of the study to RAIN News. Continue Reading
In 2016 the RAIN Internet Radio Awards celebrate their 7th year as the most prestigious celebration of excellence in the online audio industry. Slick through for categories, and details of how to submit a service for consideration. It’s all free. Continue Reading
Rhapsody is the great uncle of on-demand music subscription services. Two months ago Mike Davis took over as CEO, quickly tightening the ship with a round of layoffs. Last week came the announcement that Rhapsody would become Napster across all territories, consolidating its brand. RAIN News dialed up a conversation with Mike Davis to discuss that decision, and talk about steering a music service through a complex competitive landscape. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia today announced the launch of a private programmatic marketplace for digital radio in the company’s iHeartRadio service. iHeart says this is the first programmatic platform of its kind in the U.S. The platform is powered by ad-tech company AdsWizz. Continue Reading
Podcast platform audioBoom has signed a partnership with Australian mobile advertising company Big Mobile, to exclusively market audioBoom’s spoken-word inventory to advertisers in Big Mobile’s market across Australia. The announcement comes with a couple of interesting metrics. Continue Reading
PodcastOne announced that Jim Berk has come aboard as Chief Executive Officer. Berk comes from Participant media, where he was CEO for nine years. PodcastOne founder Norm Pattiz maintains his role as Executive Chairman, and Kit Gray continues as President. the announcement signals further expansion. (Video: Norm Pattiz interview at RAIN Summit West.) Continue Reading
Yesterday’s announcement that Rhapsody would rebrand as Napster across its global music service empire caused flashbacks in the minds of digital audio veterans. Matt Graves helped launch Rhapsody in 2001, and has worked in the online media fields for even longer. In this guest column he reviews the astonishing and unlikely history of Napster. Continue Reading
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When do we know that a media category has attained maturity? Many answers to that, the most viable probably being a thriving and sustainable financial ecosystem. But a more fun answer is when various groups give out awards designed to celebrate excellence and separate cream from crop. Continue Reading
One pre-1972 copyright case that has escaped broad awareness is Capital Records vs. Vimeo, the high-end video platform. Vimeo has just won an appeal that absolves it from treating pre-1972 music content differently from post-1972 music content. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web. Today: Internet radio’s history; the threat of Amazon; the future of podcasting. Continue Reading
Twitter has confirmed that it has made a capital investment in SoundCloud. Re/code is reporting anonymous sources who say the investment is worth about $70-million. So continues the long, unsteady relationship of micro-blogging service Twitter with music. Continue Reading